


One Day At A Time

by MadisonAvenue21



Category: Grace and Frankie (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 09:00:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10590726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadisonAvenue21/pseuds/MadisonAvenue21
Summary: Frankie agrees to meet Sol for dinner and with the "help" of Grace, things don't go as smoothly as planned.





	

“Will you stop pacing? You’re going to wear a hole in my floor” Grace looks up from her computer as she readjusts on the couch to reach for her glass. She takes a sip of her martini –which in Frankie’s opinion could have waited until later- and settles back into her spot.

“ _Our_ floor” Frankie reminds Grace. She still can’t let go of the fact the beach house still technically belongs to both of them. “I can’t help it, I’m nervous.” She whispers the last part as if it was a secret.

“Nervous about what?” Grace says in a way that would make you think Frankie was being irrational.  Frankie just shakes her and goes back to her pacing; she catches a glimpse of herself in the glass of one of the pictures on the wall and begins messing with her hair.

“Should I wear it up or down? Up or down?” She asks the second time frantically.

“Okay, that’s it.” Grace puts her computer asides and drags Frankie to the kitchen along with her martini glass.

“What are you doing?” Frankie watches Grace carefully as she puts her empty glass down next to a clean one. She picks up her shaker and fills both glasses to the rim; she throws two olives into each glass and quickly slides one of them over to Frankie.

“Drink this, all of it, then sit down and take a breath because if you don’t I’m going to lock you in the hall closet.” Grace looks Frankie right in the eye so she knows she’s serious. For fear that she might actually do it, -because she has before-  Frankie takes the martini glass and follows Grace back to the couch.

“I really shouldn’t be drinking this.” Frankie says as she just stares into it.

“Well, if you really aren’t going to drink it, don’t put your fingers in it I’ll-“ Grace cuts herself off as she looks up and sees Frankie fish the olives out of glass with her fingers. “Guess not.” Grace says under her breath.

Frankie sets the martini down and begins shaking her leg out of nervousness. Grace looks up from her computer and sighs, knowing it was only going to get worse. She took another sip of her martini before placing her computer aside again.

“Why are you so nervous? It’s just Sol. It’s not like you’re meeting the Pope.”

“Yes, but this is the first time we’re having dinner alone since he moved in with Robert.” Frankie says as she shakes her leg more. Grace sighs again and crawls across the couch and places her hand on Frankie’s knee to stop her leg from shaking. She simultaneously reaches for Frankie’s martini glass and places it to her lips. “Drink, you’ll feel better. And you’ll be doing me a favor.” She says the last part under her breath.

Frankie takes the martini glass from Grace’s hand and takes a few small sips. Just when she thought she settled down, they both heard a knock on the door. “Oh shit.” Without thinking, Frankie downed the entire martini at once. “Holy fuck that’s strong.” She shakes her head back and forth to try and adjust to the taste in her mouth.

Grace chuckles. “Well, you’re not supposed to drink it like a shot. I hope you aren’t the one who’s driving.”

“No, why do you think Sol’s here. He’s volunteered to drive us both.”

“No, he’s being _forced_ to drive you because your car windows are so filthy, you can barely see out of them.”

“We’re in a fucking drought, Grace. What’s more important?” Grace rolls her eyes and goes back to whatever she was doing on her computer. Frankie almost forgetting Sol was at the door, walked quickly to answer it.

“Don’t you look nice.” Sol smiled. He could tell Frankie was already flustered.

Frankie tried to keep her cool. She couldn’t let Sol see what he was doing to her.

“So do you, ready to go?” She says quickly, already half way out the door. Sol just shrugs his shoulders and follows Frankie.

They ride in silence for most of the trip to the restaurant; mostly because neither one knows what to say. They’ve had conversations with each other since they split up but that was with other people around like Grace, Robert, or the kids. Frankie starts to feel the martini hit her and Grace was right… for once. She did feel a little better.

They arrive at the restaurant and surprisingly Frankie feels more relaxed about spending time with Sol. The waiter gives them a small table in the back, probably thinking they were on ‘date.’ Frankie laughs to herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Sol went on date together. In the last few years, they barely ate together at home; Sol always said he had to stay at the office late. Frankie quickly stopped laughing wondering if that was just an excuse to meet Robert. She tried to push the thought out of her head all the while she practically falls into her seat and laughs. Against her better judgement (which was slowly working its way out) she ordered a glass of wine.

“If you’re going to be staying at the beach house with Grace, I think it’s time to start talking about what we’re going to do about our house.” Sol says as he takes a sip of wine. _‘Our house’_ the words echo in her head and she starts thinking too deeply. She was already emotional about all of it and the alcohol was making it worse.

“Frankie?” Sol reached his hand across the table and placed it on top of Frankie’s. Frankie quickly comes out of her thoughts at the touch of his hand. “The house? Um yeah, great.” She shakes her head and then notices Sol’s hand. She pulls her hand back and takes another sip of wine. Sol sheepishly brings his hand back to his side of the table.

Throughout dinner, Frankie mostly works on her wine. She had two glasses by the time their food arrived. She barely eats anything no matter what Sol says to try and get her to eat. Every time he tries to bring up what they were there to talk about before, Frankie changed the subject.

“Frankie, you’ve been acting strange all night. Do you want to talk about what you’re feeling?” Frankie scoffs and tries to sit up straighter. “No… I don’t. For once, I don’t want to talk about my FUCKING FEELINGS.” She says throwing her hands up in the air and screaming the last part. She was attracting more attention. Sol just looks at her, eyes wide as saucers. “Okay little lady, I think you had enough.” Sol said taking her glass.

“Screw you; I’m not your ‘little lady’.” Frankie says using over exaggerated air quotes.

“I’m trying to help you.” Sol says calmly.

“I don’t need your help! If you don’t remember you’re the one who is divorcing me!” She says trying to stand up but just falls right back into her chair.

“I’m taking you home.” Sol says getting their bill and leaving cash so they could leave faster. He walks over to Frankie’s side of the table and helps her out of the chair. He puts his arm around her waist and she tries to protest but Sol grabs onto her tighter. He apologizes to anyone and everyone he sees on the way out and tries to walk to the car as fast as he can.

The whole ride home, Frankie blurts out random thoughts and Sol worries about her the entire time. He felt like he should have picked up on what was happening. He could tell Frankie was acting strange before they left and he didn’t do anything about it. Although, now that he thought about it, what was it supposed to do? They were supposed to be moving forward with this divorced. Tonight felt like a step backwards.

When they reached the house, Sol practically carried Frankie inside and placed her gently on the couch. “Grace?” Sol looked around and noticed a note on the fridge. _“Frankie, I went out on a last minute date. Be back later. P.s if your ‘dinner date’ with Sol went as badly as I think it did, I saved you another martini. It’s in the fridge. - Grace._

“Were you drinking hard liquor?” Sol walked over to Frankie and showed her the note. She looked up at Sol and just smiles. “You know what that does to you.” Sol said sitting down next to her. “And a martini no less.”

“Grace said it would make me feel better. She was right.” Frankie said laughing. “And how many times does that happen?” She said laughing even harder.

“Come on, I’m taking you to bed.”

“But it’s not even that late.” Frankie said trying to get out of it. “And I want Cheez-its!”

“If you take a nap, I’ll get you some cheetz-its.”

It’s a miracle both of them made it up the stairs in one piece, especially since Frankie could barely walk. Sol puts her in bed and didn’t even bother to try and get her in pajamas. He was headed downstairs to call Grace but Frankie stopped him.

“Will you lay with me?”

“I thought we were supposed to be working on boundaries?” Sol said turning around to look at Frankie.

“Just this one time?” She asked and her voice cracked and that was all Sol needed. He walked over to the bed and took off his shoes before sliding in next to Frankie. She laid on her side and Sol immediately wrapped his body around hers. Just so she knew he was there. He reached around and grabbed her hand and this time, she didn’t pull away.

“Remember when I told you that I loved sleeping in a bed by myself? Well I lied. It’s fucking terrible.”  She said trying not to cry but she couldn’t help it. “Half the time I can’t sleep and when I finally do I toss and turn all night.”

Sol couldn’t help but feel guilty. After all, he was the one who put her in this situation. He knew this would affect her, Frankie never did well on her own. He just didn’t realize how bad it was going to be. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Was all he could think to say. He knew though, no matter how many times he apologized to her, it wouldn’t change the situation.

He could hear her crying, he could tell she was trying to hold it in. He tried to get her tissues, but she wouldn’t let him go. She held onto tightly, almost for dear life.

“Can you just give me this one last night?  Like it’s a normal one at home? I know it’s not but-“

“Okay, whatever you want.” Sol said knowing it was the alcohol talking but complied anyways. He felt it was the least he could do for her. He stayed with her until she was asleep and felt her grip loosen. He slowly climbed out of the bed and grabbed his shoes. He thought to leave aspirin and water along with the box of cheez-its on her bedside table for when she woke up. He watched her sleep for just a moment and smiled before placing a light kiss on her forehead and turning out the lights.

He wondered how much of this she would remember in the morning. A little piece of him hoped she wouldn’t really remember any of it. He knew today set them back and that she would be hard on herself if she remembered anything, but they would just have to take it one day at a time.


End file.
